FOX ON THE RUN: While no one really holds out a lot of hope for the original Big Three networks, the conventional wisdom is that Fox, the upstart that made the Three into Four, will be agile enough to weather both the economic downturn and the harrowing changes happening in the way we watch TV. (Harrowing, of course, if you’re a broadcast network.)

Or maybe not. The network is looking uncharacteristically slow with the barrage of new and controversial ideas that have always been its trademark. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori and President Kevin Reilly (ex-NBC) talked up their midwinter lineup with less than scintillating results.

“In terms of making tweaks to, let's call it the Top 36,” Liguori said of American Idol, returning for its eighth season, “it's a little bit of going back to the future. We've done that in the past, and it really has worked. It somewhat heightens the drama around those Hollywood episodes.” Somewhat? One hopes so.

“By nature, this show has a particular kind of audience,” Reilly said of Dollhouse, a new sci-fi thriller from Buffy creator Joss Whedon, which the network has slotted into the black hole of Friday night. “That's just what Joss does.” Sounds like someone’s got their expectations on the low side, don’t you think?

It’s not all dismal, though – according to the Hollywood Reporter, Fox is developing a comic drama about a quartet of female werewolves in New York City. It’s being written by Michael Dougherty, whose writing credits include Superman Returns and the second X-Men film.

The title? Bitches. Good old Fox.